God himself has condescended to teach me the way. He has written it down in a book. Oh, give me that book! At any price give me the book of God. Let me be a man of one book. —John Wesley
The Bible continually amazes me. I guess my pride wants to think that once I have a verse figured out, I’ve got it figured out for good. But that’s not the way it works with the sword of the Spirit, God’s Word. The Holy Spirit and God’s unchanging Word continually work together to bring us new insights that can transform our day and set us free. God’s Word can be used as a defensive weapon as well as an offensive weapon under the direction of the Spirit in us. We sure see this in Jesus’ life. Right after Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit descends on Him in the form of a dove.
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him…. (Matthew 4:1-3)
Satan threw everything he could at Jesus—food, power, recognition, and the wealth of the whole world—but Jesus used the sword of the Spirit to defend Himself every time. Three times He said, “It is written….” Finally, Jesus gets in the tempter’s face and says,
“Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him. (Matthew 4:10-11)
This leads me to believe that Satan flees not only from the name of Jesus, but he flees from the words of Jesus, too. He has no answer to the Word of God—which is why it’s important for us to plant some of it in our hearts and in our minds so that wherever we are, we can take it up to our defense.
Holy Spirit, right now, bring to mind unchanging truths from God’s eternal Word. Use these words as Your sword to defend me, as well as to make me effective offensively, as You work through me today to glorify God in any way You see fit in this world. Amen.